Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Honduras' New Foreign Minister

Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti (L) takes the oath of newly appointed Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez Colindres at Congress in Tegucigalpa June 29, 2009. Micheletti was named interim president by Congress within hours of the coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday. Zelaya, a Chavez ally who took office in 2006, angered the Honduran Congress, Supreme Court and army by pushing for a public vote to gauge support for changing the constitution to let presidents seek re-election beyond a single four-year term. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

Americas: During his campaign, President Obama made a big deal of criticizing leaders who are elected democratically but don't govern democratically. He's had a chance to show that it mattered in Honduras. He didn't.

That's the sorry story as Honduras' now ex-president, Mel Zelaya, last Thursday defied a Supreme Court ruling and tried to hold a "survey" to rewrite the constitution for his permanent re-election. It's the same blueprint for a rigged political system that's made former democracies like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador into shells of free countries.

Zelaya's operatives did their dirt all the way through. First they got signatures to launch the "citizen's power" survey through threats — warning those who didn't sign that they'd be denied medical care and worse. Zelaya then had the ballots flown to Tegucigalpa on Venezuelan planes. After his move was declared illegal by the Supreme Court, he tried to do it anyway.

As a result of his brazen disregard for the law, Zelaya found himself escorted from office by the military Sunday morning, and into exile. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro rushed to blame the U.S., calling it a "yanqui coup."

President Obama on Monday called the action "not legal," and claimed that Zelaya is still the legitimate president.

There was a coup all right, but it wasn't committed by the U.S. or the Honduran court. It was committed by Zelaya himself. He brazenly defied the law, and Hondurans overwhelmingly supported his removal (a pro-Zelaya rally Monday drew a mere 200 acolytes).

Yet the U.S. administration stood with Chavez and Castro, calling Zelaya's lawful removal "a coup." Obama called the action a "terrible precedent," and said Zelaya remains president. (Read entire article)

The constitution of Honduras does not allow for a presidential re-election. No problem, said Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to his protégée, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. Chavez easily convinced Zelaya he should promote a referendum on this topic and went on to help him prepare the logistics fo the event. After all, Chavez told Zelaya, this had worked extremely well for him in Venezuela a few months ago while the governments of the hemisphere kept respectfully silent.

But the constitution of Honduras is explicit. It defines as a crime any attempt at changing its stipulation on no re-election.

Therefore, when Zelaya put his plans in motion the Supreme Court issued a judicial order to stop the referendum and ordered the army to prevent it. In parallel the National Congress of Honduras, including members of the government party, declared Zelaya’s pretension unconstitutional. Zelaya responded by dismissing the military chief and by pushing forward with his plans. In answer, the Supreme Court ordered the military chief reinstalled in his position since he was only following their orders.

Sunday June 28, President Zelaya tried to put the referendum in place and the Army, acting on orders by the Supreme Court, stopped the event. President Zelaya was placed in a plane, unharmed, and sent to neighboring Costa Rica. The same day the Honduran National Congress decided, with the votes of the members of the government party, to unseat him as president. The reason? President Zelaya had tried to place himself above the laws of the country. By trying to pave the way for his re-election he had attempted a coup.

The immediate reaction of the governments of the hemisphere meeting at the Organization of American States has been “politically correct”. All members, including the U.S., asked for the “immediate return of President Zelaya to his position” and condemned the “military coup”. This is, of course, the same organization that a few weeks ago begged the dictatorial government of Cuba to return to its fold, the same organization that has closed its eyes to the numerous violations of the Venezuelan constitution by Hugo Chavez and to his obvious alignment with the terrorist Colombian guerrillas.

It does not matter to these governments, including the U.S. government, that President Zelaya acted outside the constitution, that the Supreme Court of Honduras ordered him to stop an illegal event, that the National Congress of Honduras decided almost unanimously to oust him from the presidency and that the Honduran army was following orders from the Supreme Court. In the eyes of this organization an elected president, apparently, can do what he wants and get away with it. (Read entire article)

Many foreign observers are condemning the ouster of Honduran President Mel Zelaya, a supporter of Hugo Chavez, as a "military coup." But can it be a coup when the Honduran military acted on the orders of the nation's Supreme Court, the step was backed by the nation's attorney general, and the man replacing Mr. Zelaya and elected in emergency session by that nation's Congress is a member of the former president's own political party?

Mr. Zelaya had sacked General Romeo Vasquez, head of the country's armed forces, after he refused to use his troops to provide logistical support for a referendum designed to let Mr. Zelaya escape the country's one-term limit on presidents. Both the referendum and the firing of the military chief have been declared illegal by the Honduran Supreme Court. Nonetheless, Mr. Zelaya intended yesterday to use ballots printed in Venezuela to conduct the vote anyway.

All this will be familiar to members of Honduras' legislature, who vividly recall how Mr. Chavez in Venezuela adopted similar means to hijack his country's democracy and economy. Elected a decade ago, Mr. Chavez held a Constituent Assembly and changed the constitution to enhance his power and subvert the country's governing institutions. Mr. Zelaya made it clear that he wished to do the same in Honduras and that the referendum was the first step in installing a new constitution that would enhance his powers and allow him to run for re-election.

No one likes to see a nation's military in the streets, especially in a continent with such painful memories of military rule. But Honduras is clearly a different situation. Members of Mr. Zelaya's own party in Congress voted last week to declare him unfit for his office. Given his refusal to leave, who else was going to enforce the orders of the nation's other branches of government?

During the past 3 1/2 years, my country has lived through a sad satire of governance.

Influenced by the No. 1 promoter of 21st-century socialism, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, our ex-president, Manuel Zelaya, took us down the road of social divide, abuse of media publicity, propaganda and the absolute void of checks and balances with one end in mind: to stay in power indefinitely.

During his last year, he embarked on a mission to carry out a total reform of our constitution, following the well-tested formula of Mr. Chavez and Equador's President Rafael Correa so he could remain in power "constitutionally."

Running a campaign disguised as promoting change for the people and true direct participation of the masses, he started to promote this project with all his executive might. The judicial branch deemed this project illegal, as did our electoral tribunal and the Attorney General's Office.

Nonetheless, these institutions started to be portrayed as part of the groups of power that were afraid of change, tyrants opposed to the people of our country, who did not want people to express themselves. Whatever person or institution went against his project was also an enemy of the people. Sound familiar, Mr. Chavez?

Last week, Mr. Zelaya issued executive orders to the armed forces to carry out the first phase of the constitutional reform project. The head of the armed forces, knowing that this order was illegal and unconstitutional, said "No." Mr. Zelaya went on national TV and fired Gen. Romeo Vasquez for refusing to carry out the order, but our nation's Supreme Court reinstated him. The firing was a clear signal Mr. Zelaya was putting his personal ambition and interests before any genuine interest to change things and improve the quality of life of Hondurans.

He was only thinking of improving his quality of life through illegal means and at the cost of the peace of a whole country. This was the beginning of the end of a crisis in our young democracy.

This morning, the armed forces restored peace and democracy to our country, backed by all institutions: legislative branch; judicial branch; political parties, including the former president's own party; business bureaus; and most other groups representing society. Their stance sends a clear message: No one, not even the president, is above the law. (Read entire article)

More Info On Honduras

More background information on the events prior to Zelaya’s removal from office:Here is more information on Mel Zelaya’s move:

Zelaya couldn’t get the ballots printed in Honduras since the referendum had been pronounced illegal by the country’s Supreme Court AND the electoral board. Therefore, the government couldn’t print them. No private printer was willing to break the law, either. So Zelaya had the ballots printed in Venezuela and flown in.

The Supreme Court instructed the military (who would be the ones doing the job) NOT to distribute the ballots to the polling stations.

led thousands of supporters to recover the material from an air force warehouse before it could be confiscated.

His supporters broke into the military installation where the ballots were kept.

Zelaya’s supporters started distributing the ballots at 15,000 voting stations across the country. This act placed him in outright defiance of the law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court.

When the armed forces refused to distribute the ballots, Zelaya fired the chief of the armed forces, Gen. Romeo Vásquez, and the defense minister, the head of the army and the air force resigned in protest. The country’s Supreme Court voted unanimously that Vásquez be reinstated.

Tuesday last week the Honduran Congress, led by members of his own party, passed a law preventing the holding of referendums or plebiscites 180 days before or after general elections.

The Honduran Congress, led by members of his own party, named a commission to investigate Zelaya. The Commission found (my translation: If you quote it, please credit me and link to this post)

Zelaya acted against the mandates of legal and electoral laws, the Public Ministry, the National Congress, the Attorney General, and other institutions of the State, which had declared the poll illegal

On Thursday (h/t GoV) the Attorney General requested that Congress impeach Zelaya

The position of the Honduran Congress, the Supreme Court, and the attorney general is that the Constitution is to be strictly adhered to.

This is why Zelaya was removed from power: all branches of government and the country’s institutions recognized that he had broken the law.

Again, the military - by placing him in an airplane to Costa Rica early Sunday morning before he carried through the unlawful poll - acted in compliance with the Supreme Court and the Honduran Congress.

Honduras is fighting back by strictly following the constitution. The Honduran Congress met in emergency session yesterday and designated its president as the interim executive as stipulated in Honduran law. It also said that presidential elections set for November will go forward. The Supreme Court later said that the military acted on its orders. It also said that when Mr. Zelaya realized that he was going to be prosecuted for his illegal behavior, he agreed to an offer to resign in exchange for safe passage out of the country. Mr. Zelaya denies it.

Many Hondurans are going to be celebrating Mr. Zelaya’s foreign excursion. Street protests against his heavy-handed tactics had already begun last week. On Friday a large number of military reservists took their turn. “We won’t go backwards,” one sign said. “We want to live in peace, freedom and development.”

Besides opposition from the Congress, the Supreme Court, theelectoral tribunal and the attorney general, the president had also become persona non grata with the Catholic Church and numerousevangelical church leaders. On Thursday evening his own party in Congress sponsored a resolution to investigate whether he is mentally unfit to remain in office.

And,

Former Argentine Ambassador to the U.N. Emilio Cárdenas told me on Saturday that he was concerned that “the OAS under Insulza has not taken seriously the so-called ‘democratic charter.’ It seems to believe that only military ‘coups’ can challenge democracy. The truth is that democracy can be challenged from within, as the experiences of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and now Honduras, prove.” A less-kind interpretation of Mr. Insulza’s judgment is that he doesn’t mind the Chávez-style coup.

The struggle against chavismo has never been about left-right politics. It is about defending the independence of institutions that keep presidents from becoming dictators. This crisis clearly delineates the problem. In failing to come to the aid of checks and balances, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Insulza expose their true colors.

what is happening in Honduras may be an example of a coup that is not only legal, but mandatory

because, in Honduras’s case, the military has been endowed with a role in maintaining democratic governance; this time their task was to delivery Zelaya safely out of office and into the airplane to Costa Rica.

governments in the region may reject military ousters much more easily than, say, the civilian demonstrations that forced democratically elected leaders to resign earlier this decade in Argentina and Bolivia

Whatever that means. The fact remains that the Honduran government and the institutions remained intact - only Zelaya was ousted.

Related reading:Donald Sensing writes on the role of the Honduran military:

…in Honduras, going all the way back to the 1840s, battalion commanders had not only a military-command responsibility, but a civilian law-enforcement responsibility. They were closely equivalent to American sheriffs in many regards. Because of their ordinary roots, battalion commanders, officers and their soldiers were much less “classed” than elsewhere in Latin America. There never formed a significant rift between the people and the military.

Though attenuated nowadays from days of old, the Honduran army has long had a traditional role as keeper, and sometimes guardian, of civil order and has been viewed by the people as such.…

What the Honduran army did last week in shoving Zelaya, a would-be puppet of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, out of office was not a coup by even the wildest imagination. It was Zelaya who was trying to mount a coup, by using an unconstitutional referendum (with ballots printed in Venezuela!) to justify remaining in office as long as he wanted. No one in government, including his own party, supported Zelaya.

In fact, the Honduran Supreme Court actually ordered the army to remove him, a perfectly sensible development because of the historical role of Honduras’ military in civil order.

If the Obama administration had stopped to consider Honduran history and culture (or had the State Dept. paused even to consult its own experts, it would not (one supposes) have been so quick on the trigger. But instead, it practiced “ready-fire-aim,” though without the aim, even too late.

Lahore, Pakistan - Farhan Khan, a drummer in a band, is taking a break from performing. This move was prompted by his mother, who worries that her son might become a target for the Islamic extremists gradually asserting their power in this city.

In recent months, as theaters have been bombed, art festivals interrupted, and musicians targeted, Mr. Khan has learned firsthand about the rising level of hostility toward his profession.

"Once, I was walking down a street: I wear my hair long and was wearing tattered jeans," he says. "As I neared a corner, I came across a bearded man who gave me a dirty look and then scowled at me."

The stranger approached Khan and told him, "You should cut off your hair and grow your beard if you know what's good for you."

Those who've been living in Lahore – a city of 10 million – for many years find the idea of extremism arriving on these streets baffling. But its presence is growing, and musicians, artists, and performers are among those most affected.

Al Qaeda warns France of revenge for burka stance

Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing threatened on Tuesday to take revenge on France for its opposition to the burka, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country, the US monitoring service SITE Intelligencereported.

Earlier this month, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the burka, which covers the whole face, was not welcome in the strictly secular country.

"Yesterday was the hijab (the Islamic headscarf long banned in French schools) and today, it is the niqab (the full veil)," Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was quoted as saying.

"We will take revenge for the honour of our daughters and sisters against France and against its interests by every means at our disposal."

The group also called on Muslims to retaliate for what it called French "hostility" against the community and its attempt to obstruct Islam's practice on its territory.

"For us, the mujahedeen ... we will not remain silent to such provocations and injustices," Abdul Wadud said without elaborating, according to SITE.

"We call upon all Muslims to confront this hostility with greater hostility, and to counter France's efforts to divide male and female believers from their faith with a greater effort ... (by) adherence to the teachings of their Islamic sharia."

On June 22, Sarkozy said the burka was not a symbol of religious faith but a sign of women's "subservience," adding that the head-to-toe veil was "not welcome" in staunchly secular France.

France is home to Europe's largest Muslim community and faces a dilemma between accommodating Islam and maintaining secularism. In 2004, it passed a law banning headscarves or any other "conspicuous" religious symbols in schools to uphold a separation between church and state.

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri criticized the law, saying the decision showed "the grudge the Western crusaders have against Islam."

Video: The coup in Honduras was illegal, says Obama

The country’s supreme court disagrees, but oh well. The One hath spoken. Regarding the lip service he pays here to “democratic traditions,” does the fact that Honduras’s congress blessed Zelaya’s ouster and installed Micheletti as president factor at all into the calculus about how democratic this was? What about the fact that Zelaya was organizing his referendum towards anti-democratic ends, as a first step towards installing himself as a Chavez-esque strongman?

And since Obama’s so worried about setting “terrible precedents,” how about the precedent of piping up in support of a Chavez stooge instead of simply staying out of this? He goes so far here as to say that Zelaya’s still the president of Honduras, which risks forcing an impossible situation where he’s returned to power despite all other arms of the government — military, legislature, and judiciary — being openly hostile to him. What could go wrong?

New Honduran President Warns Former Leader He "Will Be Sent To Prison" If He Returns - Rumors Venezuela Will Invade

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, June 30 -- The newly appointed president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, is warning that if ousted president Manuel Zelaya attempts to return here, he will be immediately arrested and sent to prison.

"If he comes back to our country, he would have to face our tribunals and our trials and our laws," Micheletti said in an interview with The Washington Post late Monday night at his residence in the hills overlooking the capital. "He would be sent to jail. For sure, he would go to prison."

Micheletti was named the new president of Honduras by the National Congress on Sunday, hours after soldiers burst into the presidential palace, detained Zelaya while he was still in his pajamas and then put him on a plane to Costa Rica.

The new Honduran president said he did not see any way to negotiate with the Obama administration and international diplomats seeking a return of Zelaya to power because Micheletti insisted that Zelaya was guilty of crimes against the country.

"No, no compromise, because if he tries to come back or anyone tries to bring him back, he will be arrested," Micheletti said.

The streets of Tegucigalpa were empty Monday night because of a curfew, but the city is awash in rumors that Venezuela is marshaling its forces for a possible invasion. Micheletti was meeting with Honduran congressional leaders and others at his house, as soldiers stood guard outside.

Micheletti cautioned the world that his army was on alert and prepared to defend the country against any invasion.

"Our army also consists of 7.5 million people prepared to defend freedom and liberty," said Micheletti, who stressed that Hondurans were a peaceful people.

Although the United States condemned the coup, the most vocal statements of opposition -- along with threats of military intervention -- have come from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who led a summit of leftist allies in Nicaragua on Monday that demanded Zelaya's reinstatement.

"We are saying to the coup organizers, we are ready to support a rebellion of the people of Honduras," Chávez said. "This coup will be defeated."

Micheletti said, "We have fears because of Mr. Chávez. We don't know what to expect of him."

Micheletti and others in his new government say that Zelaya was acting as a strongman who was surrounding himself with leftist allies of Chavez, including the Castro brothers in Cuba and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.

Micheletti said he was sending a delegation Tuesday to the United States to make the case against Zelaya and for the new government.

The new president said he thought his country could hold out long enough for world opinion to turn its way. Venezuela has already said it would suspend oil shipments, and Honduras's neighbors --El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua -- announced that they would stop overland trade.

"That is why I want to make a call to our allies in the United States, that they should stick with us at this very important moment in the life of the country," Micheletti said. "The economy of our country is completely destroyed -- because of the acts of the former government. If aid [from the United States and Europe] keeps coming, we will show that every little penny that we borrowed will be spent for the people of this country."

Micheletti promised that Honduras would hold presidential elections in November and that a new president would take office in January 2010. Micheletti, a leader of the Liberal Party, which is also the party of Zelaya, vowed that he would not run for president.

Viva Honduras Libre

"Nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."

Honduran President Roberto Micheletti Bain

First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this material, but I had some personal issues and have been involved, to a certain degree, directly in the occurrences in Honduras over the weekend.

For the record my father was a "company" man for many years and conducted a plethora of activities in Latin America, especially Honduras during the Contras period in the '80's.

He has, moreover, been engaging in business in that Central American nation for well over 40 years...I know all aspects of Honduras quite well.

Let me commence by dispelling what many, even some on the right, have categorized as a "coup".

Amongst the best analysis which I can associate myself with, I cite the following links:

Gateway, this is not a coup, this is the Honduran Armed Forces carrying out an order of the Supreme Court of Honduras and the congress, as well as military leaders that refused to buckle to Zelaya's attempt to fully Chavez-ize the nation....Today is a day of liberty in Honduras.

Yesterday was a Day of Days in Honduras.

I thank God that Roberto Micheletti Bain, former leader of the National Congress (as mandated by the Constitution) is now the de jure President of Honduras.

Whom would have ever advanced an argument that one day, the nation pejoratively referred to as a "banana republic", would by their actions demonstrate to United States and to the world an unbinding resolve and adherence to liberty, order and justice.

God Bless the glorious armed services of Honduras (whose special forces are trained by Americans and Israelis) which upheld the honor and decency of a nation which refused to condemn itself to darkness and tyranny.

As a final aside, today our dear family friend, whom had just met with my father on Thursday in Tegucigalpa, has been named Foreign Minister of Honduras, Dr. Enrique Ortez Colindres.

He is a career, senior level Ambassador with long tenures in France, under different administrations, and at the United Nations. A staunch anti-communist and pro-American to boot! (of course not Barry's Amerika)

Oh, and by the way, I have been apprised through back channels that the "Ambassadors" from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc. had been forcibly expelled and in the case of both the Cuban and Venezuelan diplomats, they were the recipients of thundering violence due to their obstreperous nature!!!

Hizb ut-Tahrir America Conference Venue Cancels

The Aqsa School is unwilling to play host to Hizb ut-Tahrir America's (HTA) Khilafah Conference, according to an announcement that has been posted on HTA's Khilafah Conference 2009 web site. The event was scheduled for Sunday, July 19th.

The Aqsa School, an Islamic school located in Bridgeview, Illinois, was announced as the conference venue in the promotional video that was released by HTA earlier this month. The HTA conference web site provides no further explanation for the cancellation. The Aqsa School web site does not mention the Khilfafah Conference-- officially titled "Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam"-- or the subsequent cancellation.

It is possible that the school did not welcome the association with HTA, which adheres to extremist Islamist ideology. It is also possible that the board and administrators of the school anticipated unwelcome attention from the public and government officials as a result of hosting the conference.

HTA intends to find a new venue in which to hold the conference, according to the conference web site. Now that HTA has come out publicly, and is thus openly linked to the Khilafah Conference concept, it may be difficult for it to find a venue willing to host the event.

To read more about HTA's history, and its transition from covert to public operating status,please see my recent post on the Counterterrorism Blog.

Her Royal Whyness

THE HAGUE, 30/06/09 - Most Muslims in the Netherlands see Geert Wilders as a threat, but nearly one in five share his criticisms of Islam partly or in full, according to a survey by TV programme Netwerk.

Three-quarters of the Muslims consider it a threat if Wilders were to enter government. Nonetheless, one-third of them find it logical for a portion of the Dutch to vote for him. Eighteen percent of the Muslims agree with the Party for Freedom (PVV) leader on a number of points. On the other hand, 22 percent feel hatred towards Wilders.

On the question of how the Muslim community should deal with Wilders' rising popularity, there are divergent thoughts. Most support is for ignoring him (40 percent), closely followed by 'enter into the discussion' (35 percent). Next come 'let a tough counter-voice be heard' (25 percent) and 'tackle problems within the Muslim community' (23 percent).

Nearly three-quarters of the Muslims have the feeling that the 'ordinary' Dutch have judged them more negatively in recent years than in the past. Additionally, 4 out of 10 Muslims say they are discriminated against more often nowadays.

Two-thirds of the respondents see 'a future for themselves' in the Netherlands. It is noteworthy here that young Muslims in particular see it this way (73 percent). Muslims aged over 35 have less confidence: 43 percent see no future here for themselves any more.

The rise in support for anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders means many Dutch Muslims are considering emigrating, according to a poll for NCRV tv.

While 75% of Dutch Muslims said they still feel at home in the Netherlands, 57% say they feel less welcome, the poll shows, according to the Telegraaf. And 51% are thinking more often about leaving.

In addition, 75% feel they are judged more negatively since the rise of Wilders and four out of 10 say they are more often discriminated against.

Nevertheless, 18% say Wilders does make some good points, the Telegraaf says.Rotterdam

The Volkskrant carries an interview with Rotterdam city council executive Hamit Karakus who warns that well-educated young Muslims are increasingly asking themselves if they have a future in Holland.

'My children don't understand it,' he told the paper. 'You cannot say they do not speak Dutch, do not understand the habits and culture, and that they are not well-educated. But they still have the feeling that they are not accepted,' he said.

The rise of Wilders' PVV party, which emerged as the biggest in Rotterdam after the European elections, means that a growing group of second and third generation immigrants do not feel welcome and a small but growing group are turning to radical Islam, he said.

Amsterdam - Thirty-six per cent of Turkish and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands are thinking about emigrating due to the increasing popularity of the controversial Freedom Party PVV, a study conducted by polling agency Moviction showed Monday. Dutch current affairs television programme NCRV Netwerk which commissioned the poll, is to air the study's results Monday night.

More than half of Dutch Muslims think about emigrating from the Netherlands "every once in a while," the study said.

At the same time, however, 76 per cent of Dutch Muslims say they feel at home in the Netherlands.

However, 57 per cent indicate this feeling has decreased since the rise of Geert Wilders, the controversial Freedom Party leader who is highly critical of Islam.

Two in five Dutch Muslims claim they have experienced discrimination more frequently since the rise of the Freedom Party.

Almost one quarter - 24 per cent - of Dutch Muslims say they are "regularly" being discriminated against in the Netherlands. Seventy- five per cent feel native Dutch nationals have become more negative in their views towards Muslims since Wilders' popularity increase.

Remarkably, almost one fifth of Dutch Muslims - 18 per cent - partially agrees with Wilders' political ideas, while 30 per cent say they "understand" why so many Dutch nationals vote for the PVV leader.

Public television programme NCRV Netwerk commissioned the study following the Freedom Party's victory in the elections for the European parliament on June 4.

The PVV, participating in the elections for the first time, won 4 seats, becoming the second biggest Dutch party in the European Parliament.

On June 7, a national survey conducted by polling agency peil.nl said that if general elections for the parliament were to be held in the Netherlands that day, the Freedom Party would emerge as the biggest party.

The poll said the PVV would win 31 seats, beating establishment parties Christian Democrats and Labour, at an estimated 29 and 21 seats, respectively.

The Christian Democrats and Labour, which now hold 41 and 33 seats respectively, currently make up the coalition government together with the smaller Christian Union (6 seats).

Syria threatens to take back Golan by force

Syrian officials threatened on Saturday to take back the Golan Heights by force if a peace agreement involving the return of the strategic plateau is not reached with Israel, Army Radio reported.

A group calling itself the Syrian Committee for the Freedom of the Golan said it would take steps to regain control of the territory, adding that Israel has not shown willingness to achieve peace or to return what they called "Syrian land."

The comments were made at the inauguration ceremony, attended by Syrian President Bashar Assad, for a new communications center in Quneitra.

"The communications center will report on the troubles of Syrian residents residing in the occupied Golan under barbaric and racist Israeli rule," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal was quoted as saying at the ceremony, in a reference to Druze in the Golan who wish to live under Syrian sovereignty.

Last Sunday, Assad rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to resume peace talks between the two countries from "point zero."

Assad said the negotiations should resume from the point at which they stopped under former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, when the two sides had planned to formulate mutual commitments that would enable the talks to move to a direct negotiations stage.

The indirect negotiations stopped some six months ago, following Operation Cast Lead, and the announcement of early elections in Israel.

Israel gained control of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War. Syria insists that the basis for peace talks with Israel is a full withdrawal from the territory.

Michael Ledeen: Obama Must 'Bring Down Iranian Regime'

yeah, good luck with that. . .

personally, I think our President is a sissy, eating ice cream cones while Tehran burns, apologizing for everything we've done because someone's feelings might get hurt, pandering because he wants to be everyone's friend, afraid to stand up for what is right because he might get shoved back a bit and people might get sore at him

Foreign policy expert and author Michael Ledeen tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama "hasn't done anything" to help the Iranian people as resistance to the country's repressive regime continues.

Ledeen also says that the talks Obama seeks with the current regime will go nowhere, charges that Iranians "have been killing Americans all over the world," and warns that as soon as the Islamic Republic acquires a nuclear weapon, it will "test" it on Israel.

But he also believes the current regime is unlikely to survive. Israel will certainly attack Iran if the West fails to stop the ayatollahs from completing a nuclear weapon, Ledeen said.

"They've said as soon as they get a nuclear weapon they're going to test it on Israel, so that's a pretty big threat," Ledeen said, adding, "I expect the Israelis to eventually attack the Iranian nuclear facilities if the rest of the world doesn't find some other way to do it. Whether they will bomb it or not, I can't tell. There are a lot of ways to do it."

Ledeen holds the Freedom Scholar chair at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is a former consultant to the U.S. National Security Council and the Departments of State and Defense, and is a contributing editor to National Review.

Iranian authorities say 17 protesters and eight members of the volunteer Basij militia have been killed in two weeks of unrest, and that hundreds of people have been arrested.

But Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. Ledeen claims that in fact, the death toll in Iran runs in the hundreds, and thousands of people have been arrested.

Riot police clashed with up to 3,000 protesters in Tehran on Sunday. Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella asked Ledeen where he sees the conflict headed.

"Nobody knows," said Ledeen, whose books include "The Iranian Time Bomb" and "The War Against the Terror Masters."

"They've killed hundreds by now, and thousands of people are in prison. It does seem like the people are so furious, so angry, both with the electoral fraud and now with the repression, that it's hard to imagine this going away any time in the near future.

"Whether there will be big demonstrations, whether there will be small-scale demonstrations or protests or strikes or general strikes, nobody really can tell."

Martella asked if Iran will continue to operate as a police state or will change come to the oil-rich nation.

"Historically you have to say that it is possible to keep on operating a repressive police state if you're willing to kill everybody that gets in your way," Ledeen responded.

"In Iran the numbers are violently against the regime, because out of 65 or 70 million Iranians there are probably 50 or 55 [million] that don't like the regime. And they've shown in the last couple of week that they're actually going to take the chance and put their lives on the line.

"Under those circumstances it's unlikely that the regime will survive. It's really a contest of will at this point."

As for the talks Obama says are still possible with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, Ledeen declared: "We're never going to get a deal with Iran. Every president from Jimmy Carter through George W. Bush and now to Obama has tried to strike some kind of bargain with Iran, and they've all failed.

"So I don't see why anybody would imagine that they could succeed now."

Iran has rebuffed widespread claims of fraud in the presidential election and officially declared that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected, beating Mir Hossein Mousavi. Martella asked if that makes a difference, considering that "Iran is a brutal theocracy ruled by mullahs."

Ledeen answered: "Yes, because Mousavi has made it clear that he wants to dismantle that brutal theocracy."

And that regime is a "huge threat" to the U.S., Ledeen told Newsmax.

"Iran's been at war with the United States for 30 years, and Iranians have been killing Americans all over the world all that time," he said. "They are killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere as we speak.

"So it's a big threat. It's declared itself a threat. It has said it wants to destroy us."

Martella asked: "If you were giving Obama advice about Iran, what would you tell him?"

Said Ledeen: "Support the Iranian people. Say publicly that all these people have not died in vain and that Iran must be free, and then support them. Bring down the Iranian regime."

Martella: "Do you think he's not done enough so far?"

Ledeen: "He hasn't done anything to help the Iranian people. He's been dragged kicking and screaming to the point where he's finally condemned the repression, but that's it."

Up to our necks in sharia

Few people who read this blog need to be reminded, I’m sure, of how hideous sharia law can be. I’ve blogged numerous times on Pink Triangle (just put “sharia” into the search box top left) about it, and how it’s creeping into the UK.

Most of my postings have not been so much about how sharia law affects gays, but how it affects Muslims themselves – the women, of course.

A friend and fellow blogger pointed me to a video he has since embedded there, which has been posted today, and it makes shocking viewing in places. It deals not with sharia as practised in the UK, using the Arbitration Act to run these kangaroo “courts”, but how it’s delivered in Muslim countries.

It makes you wonder, of course, how long it would be before the punishments depicted there would become commonplace if our rapidly growing Muslim population reached a critical power mass and introduced sharia as the primary law of the United Kingdom. A long time a-comin’? Maybe, but possible.

Setting the images against Lennon’s “Imagine” gives them even more impact.

The video also features the front cover from Gay & Lesbian Humanist magazine from autumn 2005, which led to something of a row in gay humanist circles, showing, as it did, what it called “The sick face of Islam”, and featuring hangings of gay teens in Iran and news billboards about the 7/7 bombings in London.

I was editor of the magazine at the time, and came in for a lot of flak from cuddly Lefties who displayed more political correctness than common sense.

You don’t need to be gay to enjoy that magazine, by the way. It’s online only now, and you can see it by going to the Pink Triangle blog and clicking in the sidebar, or by clicking the icon below.

Awful Beautiful Life

Ok, lessee here onct. Computer repair, car needs brakes and rotors, mom has knees replaced (brakes and rotors), 2 cars totalled (none our fault) one in a horrific hit a stone wall twice accident that one daughter walked away from but to get the call from 200 miles away when she was on her way home is a bit of a heartstopper, truck needs head gasket & cylinder heads, wife out of work 11 months, eldest daughter gets engaged then later informs us she will be moving to a very small town in Alaska, wife out of work for 11 months, my own job of 20 years "reorganized" future by no means assured all this and more since last June. . .

Honduras Defends Its Democracy - Obama and Castro Object

Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution.

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.

Associated Press

That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. While Honduran law allows for a constitutional rewrite, the power to open that door does not lie with the president. A constituent assembly can only be called through a national referendum approved by its Congress.

But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. The Supreme Court ruled his referendum unconstitutional, and it instructed the military not to carry out the logistics of the vote as it normally would do.

The top military commander, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, told the president that he would have to comply. Mr. Zelaya promptly fired him. The Supreme Court ordered him reinstated. Mr. Zelaya refused.

Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order.

The attorney general had already made clear that the referendum was illegal, and he further announced that he would prosecute anyone involved in carrying it out. Yesterday, Mr. Zelaya was arrested by the military and is now in exile in Costa Rica.

In an unusual concurrence of views, the Obama administration and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said they still recognized Mr. Zelaya as Honduras’ president. The State Department called the events an “attempted coup” and urged Mr. Zelaya’s “return and restoration of democratic order.”

U.S. officials said they were engaged in multinational efforts to resolve the crisis, through the Organization of American States and European allies. At the same time, Washington wants a resolution “free from external influence and interference,” a senior official told reporters during a conference call organized by the State Department.

The official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said the U.S. Embassy in Honduras was “consistently and almost constantly engaged in the last several weeks working with partners” and that U.S. officials were “in contact with all Honduran institutions, including the military.” However, the military stopped taking the embassy’s calls since the coup attempt, the official said.

Let's get this clear:

1) Zelaya violated the Honduran Constitution against the express orders of the Supreme Court. For this, the Honduran military arrested him.

2) The Obama Administration calls this "an attempted coup" by the Honduran military.

3) The fact is, IT WAS PRESIDENT ZELAYA LEADING A COUP AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION OF THE NATION HE WAS ENTRUSTED TO LEAD.

It's as simple as that.

Take note, everyone. Obama stands with the Iranian government and the Honduran President, both of whom have attempted coups in the past few weeks. As of yet, Obama has not shown any inclination to stand for Constitutional Democracy. However, he has shown his willingness to side with Dictators.

Meanwhile, in America, we see that Obama is willing to take over entire corporations, violate the Constitution by running the Census from the White House, and attempt to dictate executive pay restrictions, all the while, also discussing the idea that we need a Civilian Security Force that is just as well-funded and equipped as the United States Military.

It was in Spain that Orwell realized the imminence of totalitarianism as only a person who has seen its advancing tentacles up close can. For Nazi Fascism and its senior counterpart, the Bolshevik Terror, were so fantastically brutal and corrosive that intellectuals in the West treated it with emotional disbelief, whatever credence their intellects might give it. The sheer effrontery of totalitarianism assisted its advance. The cries that “it can’t happen here”; “surely that’s impossible” lulled people in a false sense of security. Far worse was the delusion of thinking that one could refuse to go with the Gestapo or the NKVD when they finally turned up. CS Lewis wrote in the Screwtape Letters that the devil’s greatest trick was to vanish. When Orwell returned to Britain after almost dying on the Spanish battlefield, he went around the country debating against pacifists. His hardest problem was to convince them that the devil was real.

The Neda Net Manifesto

This is the resource page for NedaNet, a network of hackers formed to support the democratic revolution in Iran. Our mission is to help the Iranian people by setting up networks of proxy severs, anonymizers, and any other appropriate technologies that can enable them to communicate and organize — a network beyond the censorship or control of the Iranian regime.

NedaNet doesn't have leaders or a manifesto or even much in the way of organization. We're not affiliated with any nation or religion. We're just computer hackers and computer users from all over the planet doing what we can to help the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom.

NedaNet does have contacts on the ground in Iran. We are actively and directly cooperating with the revolutionaries (though for obvious security reasons most of us don't know who the contacts are). By helping us, you can help them.

Tehran Broadcast has a list of things the Iranian people need to carry on their revolution. This was sent out on 22 June.

1.Today we heard many people saying we can not win. Give us some spirit and motivation by reminding us of the important accomplishments made so far. Isn’t delegitimizing this government enough?! Is being united like this a small thing? Today, a Revolutionary Guard’s commander in Tehran was arrested because of his refusal to implement a crackdown order. Is this is a small triumph? We repeat, Help us maintain our spirits!

2. Invite terrified people to low cost actions; for example, pulling out money from governmental banks. Believe me but these days even wearing black in the working place (as a sign of mourning) is scary, let alone going on a strike. Please don’t criticize us for this. We did everything we could, everything within our powers, for a week. Think how you can convince a villager to pull out his/her money from the banks.

3.Don’t let state-run websites crush people’s spirit. Why didn’t you continue your DDOS attacks on the government news websites, such as Fars news? Do onto them what they are doing onto us! Please install the auto-reload plugin on firefox and bring their websites down again.

4.To create fear and frustration, the state TV, in a showmanship act, has asked people to send them pictures of the demonstrators. Explain to us, haven’t we already put our own photos and videos on the Internet?! In fact this is our strength, we should not be afraid. This is Islamic Republic TV’s psychological warfare.

5.By unfounded charges and accusations that foreign media are instigating chaos in Iran, the government has put them in a passive defensive position. Ask the foreign media to show our imperfect videos and reports. Governments, especially Obama should not remain neutral. They shouldn’t sell the people for the benefit of the rulers.

I don't know how much help Obama will be. But he did decide to disinvite Iranian diplomats to America's 4th of July Celebration after they had declined the invite. The Canadians are a little farther ahead of the curve.

Canada hardened its stance toward Iran on Thursday, denouncing the Islamic republic's appointment of a widely feared prosecutor to interrogate arrested reformists, and rescinding a Canada Day invitation that had been extended to Iranian envoys in Ottawa.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Canada was "deeply concerned" about the appointment of Saaed Mortazavi, who is known in Iran as the "butcher of the press," and who gained notoriety for his role in the 2003 death of Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi.

"On several occasions, most notably in the detention and murder of Zahara Kazemi, Mr. Mortazavi has clearly demonstrated his disregard for human rights and fundamental freedoms," Cannon said.

And please do not forget to look at the Neda Net page and see if there is some where you can pitch in.

'Considering our history with United Fruit Company we should not be meddling, but as long as Hugo, Raul and Fidel agree, I can meddle too'

Yes the AG of Honduras should have clapped the president, and every other citizen in irons who took part in executing the illegal referendum to be.

Yes they should have allowed the made in Venezuela ballots, and other imports, to be distributed and set the stage for civil war and or the end of democracy.

Yes they should have adhered to Barack Obama's sense of right and wrong (they are right and we are wrong) and aided in the ascendance of forces inimical to the freedom and security of the not only the Honduran people, but OUR people.

Why don't we just let the Hondurans whose ruling and opposition parties, courts and military ALL AGREE, govern themselves, Barry, and do in our our neighborhood with a REAL democracy, what you ingratiatingly and obsequiously sought to do with genocidal freaks?

The Brutality In Iran Foreshadows What The Mullahs Intend For Us

For those who wish to think clearly about Iran, there are two fundamental facts:

* the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been at war with us ever since the overthrow of the shah in early 1979;

* the savagery they have unleashed on the people of Iran is precisely what they want to do to us.

The Iranian leaders and their terror instruments, from Hezbollah to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killing Americans for 30 years, from the Marine barracks in Beirut in the 1980s to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment, where Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces are operating against Coalition forces. Both the history and the contemporary facts are abundantly documented.

The mullahs’ war is unrelentingly and barbarically waged. When they organize demonstrations of hatred against the United States, and lead chants of “death to America,” they mean exactly that. It is not a slogan playing to a domestic audience (we have seen in recent days that the regime is enormously unpopular), but a statement of intent. They aim to kill us, humiliate us, and eventually dominate us. Just listen to President Ahmadinejad’s words to President Obama last Saturday:

You should know that if you continue (to criticize the repression) the response of the Iranian nation will be strong. . . . The response of the Iranian nation will be crushing. The response will cause remorse.

Such language is of a piece with stories alleging that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered an all-out attack on American, British, French, and German targets wherever possible.

Meanwhile, the same forces deployed against us and our allies have taken to the streets to attack freedom-seeking Iranians. The same Revolutionary Guards who operate in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the usual foreign thugs and proxies (Der Spiegel reported five-thousand Hezbollah “fighters” had been sent into the streets of Tehran, and there are many other stories of sadistic Arabic speakers all over the country) have been beating, axing, shooting, stabbing, gassing, and clubbing unarmed peaceful protesters. As of late last week, Evin Prison in Tehran, long the regime’s Bastille, had run out of space for arrested citizens.

The brutality in Iran today foreshadows what the mullahs intend for us. It is what the world will look like if they prevail. Iran’s Middle East neighbors know this, and dread it (with the exception of Syria, which is playing Mussolini’s Italy to Khamenei’s Nazi Germany). Yet every American president from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama has convinced himself that we can reach a workable, long-term modus vivendi with the Islamic Republic. They refused to see the mullahs’ Iran for what it is: a ruthless and determined enemy, at war with the United States.

It is an old story. Franklin Roosevelt and most Western European countries refused to see that Hitler’s treatment of the German Jews and other minorities foreshadowed his global intentions, just as we deliberately blinded ourselves to the fact that Stalin’s mass murders of his own people, whether landowners or Ukrainians, showed what Soviet expansion would bring to the captive nations after the Second World War. Indeed, America has almost always refused to see evil clearly, recognize that it would inevitably be directed against us, and act early enough to prevent an even greater disaster.

To our great shame, we were unprepared for the uprising of the Iranian people, which had become highly likely in the runup to the “election,” and which, we should have been aiding for years with better communications, strike funds for workers, open calls for freedom, and insistence that political prisoners be freed. Worse yet, in the first days following the explosion, our leaders seemed annoyed that the Iranian people had interrupted efforts to strike a bargain. The president first took credit for the “robust debate,” then suggested there was no real difference between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad, warned that it would be counterproductive for him to be seen “meddling,” and then, when the dimensions of the street massacres were too large to ignore, criticized the repression and finally spoke warmly of Mousavi.

Iran is still simmering; there is still fire beneath the ashes of the savage repression, and no one knows what the tens of millions of anti-regime Iranians will do in the coming weeks and months. But we do know what the regime will do, both to its own people and to us: continue to wage its 30-year war. The big question is whether we will respond effectively.

The Parallel Government
Of The Entire World

All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.

The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics

Infidel Babe Of The Week
Moran Atias - TYRANT

IBA Quote of the Week.

"The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an "equalizer." Egalite implies liberte. And always will. Let us hope our weapons are never needed — but do not forget what the common people of this nation knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny."

"An Islamic regime must be serious in every field," explained Ayatollah Khomeini. "There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humour in Islam. There is no fun in Islam."

****************

"I want to be very, very clear, however: I understand and agree with the analysis of the problem. There is an imminent threat. It manifested itself on 9/11. It's real and grave. It is as serious a threat as Stalinism and National Socialism were. Let's not pretend it isn't."~~~~~Bono~~~~~